Enoch Adeboye, general overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), has clarified that a photograph showing him carrying a placard was taken during a prayer walk organised under the administration of late former President Muhammadu Buhari, not a protest against former President Goodluck Jonathan.
Speaking during the RCCG thanksgiving service on Sunday, Adeboye said he was wrongly portrayed as a wicked person after the photograph was circulated with claims that he had protested against Jonathan.
The cleric explained that the prayer walk took place in 2020, five years after Jonathan left office, and was organised as part of an initiative by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).
Adeboye said many Nigerians had accepted the misleading narrative that he carried a placard against Jonathan without verifying the circumstances surrounding the photograph.
“Recently, just one mischievous somebody wrote in the papers, or said somehow, ‘Pastor Adeboye is a very wicked man. After all, we know that not too long ago, he carried a placard against President Goodluck Jonathan,’” he said.
He added that the photograph, which showed him dressed in white and green while holding a placard, was presented as evidence of the alleged protest.
“And everybody said yes. They brought out the picture of where I was dressed in white and green carrying a placard and everybody said see him. When I heard about it, I said, ‘me, I carried a placard against Jonathan?’
“True, I carried a placard. I can’t deny that. It was not a protest, it was a prayer walk. We wanted to pray.
“The CAN chairman said all churches should do a prayer walk near their churches. That’s what I did in Ebute Metta.
“But I carried the placard in 2020. Jonathan ceased to be president in 2015. I carried the placard five years in the second term of Buhari.”
Recounting his experience at the university, Adeboye said he had some exposure to journalism and was taught the importance of verifying information before publication.
He accused the journalist responsible for the report of misrepresenting the 2020 prayer walk as an event that took place in 2015 without properly checking the facts.
“A journalist twisted it. I said, I did what I did in 2015. And everybody swallowed it,” the cleric said.
In February 2020, Adeboye led members of the RCCG in a demonstration against insecurity in the country.
The late Buhari was Nigeria’s president at the time, having assumed office in 2015 and served until 2023.
